Federal Government on Monday received 98m euros (N20bn) grant from the European Union to assist Nigeria in its fight against corruption.
The money is also to be used for supporting the judiciary and the fight against drug trafficking.
Minister of National Planning, Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman, signed the document for the grant at a ceremony in Abuja on behalf of the Federal Government while the Ambassador/Head of Delegation of the EU to Nigeria, Dr. David MacRae, signed on behalf of the EU.
Speaking at the ceremony, Usman said the project would be implemented by the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime.
According to him, the project is a continuation of the 9th European Development Fund supporting the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the judiciary.
The main beneficiaries of the project are the Bureau of Public Procurement, Code of Conduct Bureau, Public Complaints Commission, the EFCC, National Financial Intelligence Unit, Special Fraud Unit against Money Laundering and the Technical Unit on Governance and Anti Corruption Reforms.
MacRae said the intervention would help promote good governance, transparency, accountability and combating corruption in Nigeria.
He also said the move would contribute to the reforms in the justice sector and address drug related issues in the country.
He said, “This project is one which the EU is so much concern to seeing succeeding. The justice sector is a long term programme because if you consider the processes of justice which begins with the law enforcement agencies and for this sector to be effective, all the links and chains must be working properly.
“These areas are the ones we were working on previously but we are re-inforcing our support to government to help the national agencies to actually see a change.
“So the time has come when this very fundamental issues of corruption and justice need to be really tackled in an effective and pro-active manner.”
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